


Whispers In The Night

by QueenCarol



Series: Twists In Time [4]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24260605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenCarol/pseuds/QueenCarol
Summary: There are whispers in the night; some are dark and dreadful, some are tender and kind. What kind will Carol hear tonight?
Relationships: Ezekiel/Carol Peletier
Series: Twists In Time [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750618
Kudos: 3





	Whispers In The Night

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer:
> 
> Carol Peletier, Sophia Peletier, King Ezekiel, Henry, Jerry, Shiva, and any other recognizable character or plot of The Walking Dead belong to AMC Network and Skybound Entertainment, Image Comics and Robert Kirkman.
> 
> In no way is the author claiming ownage of any of the characters nor is there any economic/monetary gain at any time. The author is extremely respectful of the original creators and is willing to take down this work of fiction if requested.
> 
> No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Original characters are the property of the author.

“ _Henry_?”

The tiny voice coming from the baby monitor is barely a whisper but it’s enough for Carol to wake from her slumber. As exhausted as she might have been after the fair and after running around after a rambunctious and sugar high toddler, she has always been a light sleeper when it comes to her children. She’d been like that with Henry when he was a toddler, able to wake up at the tiniest sound of distress and now she is the same with Sophia.

“ _Henry? Wakey?_ ”

Besides her, she feels Ezekiel move in his sleep, his arms tightening around her and pulling her closer as he buries his face in her wayward curls. It melts her inside when he does that as if he can’t breathe without her, as if she’s his light in the dark.

“ _Henry? You wakey_?”

“They have woken?” Carol hears Ezekiel mumble as he cuddles up to her. She knows her husband is sleepy, as sleepy as she is, but she also knows that if something is bothering his children then Ezekiel will not be able to rest until both Henry and Sophia are happy.

“Soph has,” Carol replies before falling silent to try and figure out what her daughter is up to.

She hears some grunting which she is sure is coming from Sophia trying to spring out of her crib before her daughter gives a little grunt of disdain and gives up.

“ _Henry_.” She hears Sophia try again.

“ _Sophie?_ ” This time Henry answers in a very slurred tone. Carol knows he had been deep in sleep but Sophia has wakened him and Henry isn’t one to deny his sister.

“ _Yes! Henry! It me!_ ” Sophia’s voice is a little louder since she’s closer to the monitor, but her excitement clearly has gotten the best of her. Sophia still doesn’t know how to modulate her voice and she only has two volumes; shy and soft and excited and loud. There is absolutely no in-between. Seeing that her beloved brother has answered makes her as happy as her two and a half-year-old body can be.

“ _What is it, Sophie?_ ” Carol hears her son ask. “ _Did you have a nightmare?_ ”

“ _Yes_.” She doesn’t have to look at her daughter to know that Sophia is full-on pouting.

Besides her Ezekiel tenses the moment he hears his daughter’s reply. Sophia is an absolute daddy’s girl that has Ezekiel well and truly wrapped around her finger. Carol knows her husband hates it when Sophia is scared and no doubt wants to go to her side but she also knows that it is important for Sophia and Henry to keep forming that brother and sister bond.

Instead of telling Ezekiel not to go, Carol swings a hand over her body and places it against his outer leg effectively trapping him against her. Her touch is soft but he understands her right away. “Are you positive?”

“Let’s hear what they do.” She turns to look at him over her shoulder only to find his sleepy yet sparkly eyes looking at her. With a nod, Ezekiel relaxes and buries himself against her once again.

“ _Henry? Henry?”_ Sophia’s voice has gone back down to a whisper as if what she’s about to say next is only for her brother’s ears.

“ _Yes, Sophie?_ ” She hears rustling as Henry shifts in bed.

_“I sleep wif you?_ ” Sophia asks in a hopeful tone. “ _Pweeeease_.”

Carol can’t help but giggle as Sophia extends her word in her own attempt at begging. That very word in that exact delivery coupled with her pout usually gets her whatever she wants from her father and now she’s trying it with her brother.

“She requests things the same way you do.” Ezekiel teases her as he hears her giggle.

“I do not!” Carol pretends to be surprised by his accusation even though she knows Ezekiel is right. God help them but Sophia is an exact copy of her mother from the way she asks for things to the way she will stare down anyone who is displeasing her.

“Sure, my love.” Ezekiel placates. She feels his soft lips press to her naked shoulder blade and shivers as goosebumps take over her body.

“ _Pweeease?_ ” Sophia asks again when she doesn’t hear her brother answering.

Carol isn’t sure if Henry has fallen asleep until she hears his reply. “ _Sure, Sophie._ ”

“ _Thank you! Thank you!_ ” Sophia declares right away to avoid her brother changing his mind. Carol hears more rustling as Sophia shifts around. “ _Imma take my tiggy and my blanklie. Yes? Yes?_ ”

She isn’t surprised to hear her daughter request for her tiger plush to go with her. From the moment Ezekiel had brought it home when she was nothing but a newborn, Sophia had fallen in love with it. Wherever she went, little Shiva went.

“ _Yes_.” Henry gives her permission to bring her stuff over. “ _Why the blanket? I have some here_.”

“ _Smells like mama._ ” Sophia declares. From the muffled way her words come there is no doubt Sophia is rubbing her face against said blanket. “ _And Papa_.”

“ _Fine, bring them_.”

“ _Help, pwease.”_

Carol’s heart jumps in her throat. Ezekiel also stiffens. She knows what Sophia is asking for help with. She wants Henry to help her out of the crib which is something her five-year-old definitively can’t do, not without someone falling or breaking a bone. She’s already envisioning herself rushing to the ER and is about to push her way out of Ezekiel’s embrace when she hears her son’s footsteps against the laminated floor followed by the scrapping of a stool on the ground.

“ _Don’t fall,_ ” Henry begs. “ _You got it?_ ”

“ _I got it._ ”

She wishes the baby monitor had a screen she could see her daughter in, just to make sure she wasn’t going to fall. Since it didn’t have one, Carol had to settle with hearing Sophia’s tiny grunts as she maneuvered her way out of the crib.

“ _You got it, Sophie?”_ Henry asks, his voice one more far away which tells Carol that he’s back in bed.

“ _Yes... I got it... I... just..._ ”

Carol holds her breath as she waits to hear a thump but none comes. She looks over her shoulder once again in an attempt of finding Ezekiel’s eyes but her husband is looking towards the door, as ready as she is to rush and fix things did go south.

_“I got it.”_ Sophia’s soft reassurance helps both of them relax. Carol can’t help but semi-collapse in relief against the mattress, turning so she’s laying on her back. Ezekiel takes full advantage of the new position and places his head on her chest, resting there to try and calm the fast-beating heart that even Carol can feel beating in his chest.

“ _Oh no! I forgot my tiggy!_ ” The panic in her daughter’s voice is enough to have her son getting out of bed.

“ _I got it_ ,” Henry assures Sophia.

This time the grunts that filter into their room come from their son. He is taller so he probably isn’t using the stool. If she knows her son Henry is no doubt climbing over the bed as a monkey would. Ezekiel must have realized the same thing because he presses his chin to her arm in order to look at her with apologies in his eyes. After all, he had been the one to teach him all about monkeys and trees and falling just right to not break any bones.

“Forgive me,” he mouths. “I shall converse with him about it in the morn.”

“You better.” She playfully warns him.

“ _Got her?_ ” Sophia asks with something akin to worry in her voice. “ _Got Shiva?_ ”

_“I got her,_ ” Henry assures his sister.

Two sets of footsteps cross the space between the crib and the big boy bed Henry is currently using. It’s not the first time Sophia and Henry share a bed and Carol is sure it won’t be the last. She knows Henry will protect his sister by having her sleep between him and the wall so that she will not roll off, something they’d learn the hard way she would do in the middle of her sleep.

“ _Push_ ,” Sophia asks as she grunts.

It takes everything in Carol to not burst out laughing as she hears her children struggle to get Sophia up on the small bed. The bed is not very big, in fact, it’s not big at all, though to Sophia it must look like a huge bed.

“ _I’m pushing, Sophie._ ”

A small thump comes through the monitor which makes both Ezekiel and Carol jump in alert before Sophia proudly exclaims. “ _I’m up!_ ”

Neither have to wonder long about what made the thump before they hear Sophia ask Henry if he’s all right. “ _I’m okay. I slipped_.”

“ _You okay? Sure sure?_ ” Sophia asks with a worried laced tone.

“ _Sure sure, Sophie,_ ” Henry reassures her. More rustling can be heard until finally they seem to settle, both on the bed, safe and sound.

“ _Thank yous,_ ” Sophia whispers.

Henry lets out a yawn as sleep starts catching up to him once more. “ _You okay, Sophie?_ ”

Sophia doesn’t answer, at least not in a way Carol can witness. Perhaps she’s nodded her head because Henry then encourages her to go back to sleep.

“ _My blankie!_ ” Sophia protests.

“ _Where did it go?_ ”

“ _Don’t know.”_

The rustling she hears next is no doubt her son’s attempt to locate the blanket. It doesn’t take long before he’s assuring Sophia that he’s found it. “ _Here Sophie lay down, I’ll cover you._ ”

“ _Thank you, brofer, thank you._ ” Sophia mumbles.

It seems like both Henry and Sophia have settled down but Carol knows better. While she has no doubt that Henry can go back to the land of dreams right away, her toddler is far more energetic. As Ezekiel settles beside her once again, his head pillowing on her breast, Carol listens intently for what she knows will come next.

“Rest, my love, the crisis has been averted.” she hears Ezekiel mumble.

Carol smirks and threads her fingers through his hair, caressing his scalp tenderly. She knows how the sensation calms him down and since he has to get up early tomorrow for his morning shift the last thing she wants is for him to stay awake longer than he absolutely has to. She’ll continue listening to the kid's conversation on her own.

Surprisingly it isn’t Sophia’s voice that comes through but Henry’s. “ _What did you dream about, Sophie?_ ”

She can hear her daughter’s sniffle although she doesn’t dissolve into tears. “ _A bad woman_.”

“ _Why was she bad?_ ”

“ _She took you_ ,” Sophia explains. “ _Made Mama very sad. Papa was sad too.”_

Oh, Sophia. Carol knew why she’d had that bad dream. At the fair, while they made the line to get some hot dogs, the family had witnessed a mother telling her young daughter that if she didn’t behave an old woman would come and take her. The little girl had been shocked and though at the moment Sophia had seemed worried for the slightly older girl and not for herself, it seemed that her worry was now directed at her brother being taken from them.

“ _There was ugly people too_.” Sophia further explains. “ _Wanted to eat us!”_

“ _Like zombies_?”

“ _Uh huh.”_

That part she had herself to blame. Henry had wanted to go into a spooky maze and since they had been assured it was pretty mild for Sophia they’d all gone in. It had been pretty mild and Sophia had only gotten spooked once. Ezekiel had soothed their little one, all the while sending looks toward the maze worker, but the spook was now tearing its ugly head.

“Shall I go to their bedside?” Ezekiel asks as his hand gently caresses her ribs. He must know she’s blaming herself for part of her daughter’s terrors. “It might help ease her night terrors.”

Before Carol can reply, Henry’s voice once more comes through the tiny speaker. “ _Don’t worry Sophie. No one’s gonna take me away. I won’t let them. Mama won’t let them. Papa won’t either.”_

“ _Pwomise?_ ” Sophia asks with another sniffle.

_“I promise. Now go sleep._ ” Henry orders with gentleness in his voice. “ _Mama is gonna take us to Papa’s job tomorrow. Remember? We get to see the tigers._ ”

“ _Tiggies_?” Sophia asks excitedly.

“ _Yes, but we gotta sleep first. Here..._ ” Carol once again hears the rustling of the bedsheets as they are rearranged around her children. “ _Nice and warm, like Mama makes us before bed. Now go sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”_

“ _Otay_.”

Reassured by her brother’s presence, Sophia is snoring in no time. It takes Henry less than a minute to follow into dreamland. Finally, Carol relaxes in her husband’s arms knowing full well that her children are safe and keeping each other company.

“We make beautiful children,” Ezekiel notes as he snuggles closer to her. “I am proud of our young son.”

“I am too.” And she was. Henry could have easily told Sophia to go back to sleep in her crib. Instead, he helped spring her out of her tiny jail and reassured her he’d be there for her, allowing her to once more go to sleep.

Ezekiel’s head pops up. He rests his chin against his hand in order to not dig it into her chest before he smirks at her, a devilish gleam in his eyes. “Perhaps we should make another, to ensure the world has a good amount of loving and caring children.”

Carol smirks before letting out a chuckle. “Sure, put the world’s future as a positive point for another baby.”

They’d been discussing the possibility of having another baby. Even though Carol couldn’t admit to herself for some unknown fear that she wanted another one, the fact was that she did. She wants another baby to share her love with Henry and Sophia. She aches for another baby to raise with her wonderful husband.

Giving him a loving smile, Carol finally agrees. “All right, but you’ll be in charge of diaper duty.”

The smile that Ezekiel gives her is enough to want for as many children as they can have. His face lights up, his eyes sparkle and his hold body wakes.

“I shall change all diapers from henceforth,” Ezekiel promises before leaning forward to kiss her lips passionately.

“Promises, promises.” Carol teases as he pulls back from their kiss. “Now go to bed. You have an early morning tomorrow and I promised the kids a trip to the zoo to see Papa in action. I’ll call in the morning to make an appointment to have the device removed.”

They shift around once more until Ezekiel is once again spooning her, his arm wrapped around her. She buries herself in the pillows, content with her husband’s warmth and the sense of security it brings her. Slowly her eyes slip closed, her breathing evens out, and she sleeps in peace with the knowledge that her family is safe, her children have each other, and she has the most wonderful husband in the world.

There are no more whispers in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little silliness inspired by a recent viral video posted by @podsfathershow


End file.
